December 3, 2020 - Shelby Geldon is from a small town just an hour north of the cities. Currently, she is attending the University of Minnesota, studying towards a bachelor's degree in special education with a goal to continue into the master's program in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teaching.
Shelby identifies as Hard of Hearing. She has no hearing out of her right ear and only a little in her left ear, which is aided by a hearing aid. When she takes out her hearing aid, “it is quiet, which is perfect for sleeping!” When Shelby was in high school, she relied heavily on just her hearing aid and still missed information, which led to extra work outside of school to keep up with her classes. During her junior year, she tried out an FM system, which helped her hear the teacher.
In college, she took up American Sign Language through a wonderful teacher from Anoka-Ramsey Community College, in which Shelby received an Associates' degree. “I loved the class because it introduced me to signing as well as Deaf culture! I finally had a way to meet other Deaf and Hard of hearing individuals as there was only one other hard of hearing person in my school!”
Now Shelby uses both English and ASL to communicate. She uses ASL with her friends and uses spoken English in school and at home.
Shelby has two jobs: one is at a small retail store, and the other is at Minnesota Hands and Voices as a Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Guide.
At the retail store, she is a key holder, opening and closing the store and assisting customers.
As a DHH Guide, she meets with families, sharing her experiences with being hard of hearing and how to navigate everything from school to friendships to jobs. Shelby also answers any questions the family or DHH child may have about hearing differences. She also attends most of the Minnesota Hands and Voices (MNHV) events they host for families. Her main responsibility as a DHH guide is to act as a role model for other DHH individuals. She greatly appreciates her position “because when I was growing up, I Didn't have any DHH adults in my life to ask questions to or feel that connection with someone truly understanding what it is like to be Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Now I have a chance to be there for someone who is going through similar experiences that I had. Sometimes you just need another person to look up to say, 'if they can do it, so can I!'”
Shelby aspires to be the role model she needed while growing up. Sometimes she catches herself not doing something because she let her hearing difference be a barrier to things she wants to do. She has to remind herself that she wants other DHH kids to know and see that they can do anything. “So I do what I would want my role model to do, I go out there, and I do the things that scare me because, in the end, it isn’t as scary as I thought it would be. For example, sometimes I still get scared to hang out in a large group of people because It is way harder to hear. I get scared to tell them about my hearing difference because I don’t know what they will think. Then I remember who I want to be. I tell them about my hearing difference and explain to them that I need them to face me and be on my left side to hear them. If they choose to not let themselves learn about my hearing difference and ignore my accommodations, then that is someone I do not want to be around anyway. When others accommodate me and want to learn more, then I know that they are people who I want to have as friends. You will meet the right people. You just have to be open and give them a chance to show you how great they can be.”
While working at MNHV, Shelby has not faced many challenges, as most settings are accessible. However, when she is on family visits, it can be challenging to hear the family talking, which she can use her FM system and give it to whoever is speaking so she can hear them better and/or use speech-to-text apps on her phone. At the retail store Shelby works at, she often has a hard time hearing customers when they come in, or they will talk to her as they are walking around the store and turning to look at something. “Right away, I try to let customers know that I am hard of hearing and that I need them to face me when they speak, or I ask them to speak a little louder. There are times where I just need them to write down what they are saying. The majority of the customers I have are patient and understanding. There are a few who get snappy with me. I have to remember that they just don’t understand how hearing loss works and try to teach them about it.”
Shelby would like to share the following advice: “do not be afraid to let people know about your hearing difference and remind them of accommodations you need. We can do anything! Sometimes we just need a few accommodations or a little help to do what we want to do, and that is okay! I often have to ask my other coworkers what is going on because I missed something, and that is okay! Hearing people also mishear or misunderstand things; it's just human.”
She loves hiking and being outdoors. One of her favorite things to do is swing dance. There are a couple of places in the cities that have social swing dancing and “I love it so much! I often see some of the same people there and have started showing them simple signs, such as “do you want to dance” or “thank you,” to be able to communicate with me better! It is wonderful to see because when I go, someone remembers the sign for dance, and they ask me to dance by singing versus trying to talk over the very loud music!”
Shelby offers some words of wisdom: “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. When you take a risk, you often get the greatest reward. When I started college at the U of MN, on the first day of class at the university, when we would do introductions, I decided to start telling the whole class about my hearing difference and that if they call my name and I don’t hear them, I'm not ignoring them! I just need them to get my attention first. I also described how my FM system works and about my captioning because others are more curious than anything and get scared to ask questions. I like to let them know that if they are curious about anything, they can ask me. Once I started being more open, I noticed a lot of people would ask me questions about my FM system, and their response was always something like, “wow, that's so cool!.” I also saw a lot of my classmates would check to make sure I didn’t miss something, or when doing group work, they would ask if I preferred to be in the hallway where it is quieter. I remember one time the teacher was putting on a video, and she forgot captions. I was feeling scared to raise my hand to ask her to turn them on when this girl in the back shouted “captions!” to let the teacher know to turn on captions. So don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone because every time you do, your comfort zone gets bigger and bigger, and your confidence grows too.”
The #CanDoAnything campaign showcases people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing at work, giving them an opportunity to share what they do at their jobs and explain how communication access works for them. This campaign shows what our community can do, which is anything!
